Above all else, analysts focused on earnings per share. They regularly consulted with the company’s investor relations executives, who quietly gave them what came to be known as earnings guidance. Using that guidance, the analysts came up with their earnings estimates for the next quarter (or the next year), which they would then market to their big institutional clients. The estimates of the various analysts were also fed to an organization called First Call, which blended them together to form the consensus earnings estimate. That consensus earnings figure was the number companies needed to
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